Armed Forces: Redundancy

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many redundancy letters in each tranche have been delivered to personnel stationed at (a) RAF Lossiemouth, (b) RAF Leuchars, (c) HMNB Clyde, (d) RM Condor, (e) Headquarters 2nd Division, (f) Headquarters 51 Brigade, (g) Redford Barracks, (h) Dreghorn Barracks, (i) Kinloss Barracks, (j) Fort George Barracks, (k) Glencorse Barracks, (l) Crombie Defence Munitions Centre, (m) Beith Defence Munitions Centre, (n) Glen Douglas Defence Munitions Centre, (o) HMS Gannet, (p) Royal Naval Armament Depot Coulport, (q) MOD Hebrides Ranges, (r) British Underwater Training and Evaluation Centre, (s) Loch Ewe Fuel Depot, (t) Garelochead Defence Fuel Depot, (u) HMS Caledonia, (v) Rosyth Defence Estate and (w) West Freugh Training Ranges.

Mark Francois: The information requested about numbers of redundancy letters is set out in the following table:
	
		
			 Number 
			 Location Tranche 1 Tranche 2 Tranche 3 
			 RAF Lossiemouth 40 50 0 
			 RAF Leuchars 30 20 — 
			 HMNB Clyde 20 — 0 
			 RM Condor 20 — 0 
			 HQ 2 Div 0 0 0 
			 HQ 51 Bde — 10 10 
			 Redford Barracks (Bks) — 10 30 
			 Dreghorn Bks — 20 30 
			 Kinloss Bks 70 20 70 
			 Fort George Bks — 10 30 
			 Glencorse Bks — 10 20 
			 Crombie Defence Munitions Centre (DMC) 0 0 0 
			 Beith DMC 0 0 0 
			 Glen Douglas DMC 0 0 0 
			 HMS Gannet 0 0 0 
			 RN Armament Depot Coulport 0 0 0 
			 MOD Hebrides Ranges 0 0 0 
			 British Underwater Training and Evaluation Centre 0 0 0 
			 Loch Ewe Fuel Depot (FD) 0 0 0 
			 Garelochead Defence FD 0 0 0 
			 HMS Caledonia — 0 0 
			 Rosyth Defence Estate 0 0 0 
			 West Freugh Training Ranges 0 0 0 
			 — = less than 5. Note: When rounding to the nearest 10, numbers ending in “5” have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent systematic bias. 
		
	
	Neither the post nor the location in which individuals are serving are taken into account by armed forces redundancy selection boards. The selection of an individual for redundancy cannot be assumed to imply that the post they occupy on the date of notification is no longer required. In addition, service personnel move between posts and locations regularly, and the location at which they will be serving on their exit date may be different from that at which they were notified. For these reasons, neither the geographical distribution nor the units within which individuals were serving when notified for redundancy are a valid basis for assumptions about the longer term disposition of future military posts.

Housing Benefit: Night Shelters

Julie Hilling: UKUT 06S (AAC), if he will issue clarification to local authorities as to when a night shelter should and should not be eligible for funding through housing benefit.

Steve Webb: The Upper Tribunal judgment was about whether a person’s accommodation could be regarded, for benefit purposes, as a dwelling which the claimant occupied as his home. Housing benefit regulations do not refer specifically to homeless hostels or shelters and the law in this respect has not changed.
	It remains for local authorities to make their decision in each claim after considering all the relevant facts.

Infant Mortality

Chris Ruane: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office with reference to the answer of 27 January 2011, Official Report, columns 463-4W, on infant mortality, when the figures were last updated; what the current figures are; and when the figures will next be updated.

Nick Hurd: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
	Letter from Glen Watson, dated July 2013
	.
	Infant deaths are those where a baby has died within the first year of life. Tables 1 and 2 attached provide the infant mortality rate in each (a) local authority and (b) clinical commissioning group in England and Wales; Figures are for 2009-11, the most recent period for which figures are available. The data are presented as three year aggregates in order to smooth the annual fluctuations in deaths and provide large enough numbers to ensure that the figures are sufficiently robust.
	Due to the sensitive nature of infant deaths and the risk of identifying individuals, ONS does not publish infant mortality figures for smaller areas. Consequently, rates by (c) parliamentary constituency are not provided.
	Numbers and rates, based on three-year aggregated data, for infant mortality by local authority and strategic health authority for 2008-10 were published on 26 March 2012 on the ONS website at: http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadHome.do. Figures are published for 1998-2000 through to 2008-10.
	Figures for 2009-11 are due to be published by Public Health England, based on data produced by ONS, on 6 August 2013 and will be available on the Public Health Outcomes Framework Data Tool at; http://www.phoutcomes.info/.
	Further information on infant and childhood deaths in England and Wales can be found in the statistical bulletin Child Mortality Statistics on the ONS website: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/vsob1/child-mortality-statistics--childhood--infant-and-perinatal/index.html
	A copy of the tables has been placed in the House of Commons library.